“Hatchett says Red’s granny was a witch, and when he showed up she was blowing a little flute that could manipulate the wind. Well, he got it wrong. It wasn’t a flute. It was a kazoo.”
Daphne held it up for everyone to see. Sabrina continued, “Red’s grandmother either found the kazoo or created it herself. From Hatchett’s version, it could control the wind. But we think it does more than that. The kazoo creates a wind that literally blows the insanity out of a person. When Hatchett and Canis stumbled upon the grandmother’s house, they watched the witch blow the madness out of a rabid wolf. She bottled it up but she wasn’t doing this to heal a sick animal. She was testing the kazoo to make sure it worked before she tried it on her granddaughter.”
“She was trying to fix Red,” Granny marveled.
Sabrina nodded. “At least we think she was. Mr. Canis, or Tobias Clay, or whatever his name was, just got in the way. He was trying to be a hero and save Red. He is the real hero woodcutter from the story, not Howard Hatchett.”
“And you want to try this on Red? Hatchett told us it was dangerous. The madness from the rabid wolf merged with Mr. Canis to become the Big Bad Wolf,” Uncle Jake said. “What happens if Red’s madness slips into one of us? The Wolf part of Canis is completely insane. Canis has never been able to fully control it.”
“We have to be careful,” Sabrina said. There was a knock at the door and when the locks were all undone it swung open. Nurse Sprat held a glass jar in her nervous hands.
“Here!” she cried, then shoved it into Sabrina’s hands and slammed the door tight.
“This jar will do the trick, I hope,” Sabrina said. “If the three pigs had had a jar when they beat the Wolf and took the kazoo from him, we might have been rid of the monster for good, but they had no idea what the kazoo was capable of. They just thought it was how the Wolf huffed and puffed his way around town. But when they turned it on him, the Wolf was gone and Canis was left behind. The rabid wolf’s insanity left Canis, allowing him to take control of his body, even when the insanity swirled back into him. But as we’ve been seeing, he wasn’t that much in control, and he’s slowly changing back.”
“So if we can trap Red’s insanity in a jar, then she can tell what she remembers from that day?” Robin asked.
Sabrina nodded. “The only chance of saving Canis is if an Everafter stands up for him. If we fix Red, she can do that for us.”
“It doesn’t hurt that she’s in the Scarlet Hand,” Uncle Jake added.
“Should I do it now?” Daphne asked.
“Yes. When I turned it on the Black Knight, I concentrated on having the power affect him only. I think the wind will do what you ask it to,” Sabrina encouraged her sister.
Daphne raised the kazoo to her lips and blew. The wind blasted out of it, upending the dolls, tea set, and anything else that wasn’t nailed down. The people, however, seemed unfazed, except for their hair flying around.
Red Riding Hood glanced around her and started to laugh. “Bad weather!” she shrieked. “Very bad weather.”
The wind swirled around her like a snake. It crept around every limb, embraced her tightly, and then pulled back. Red cried out in pain as the group watched something horrible and black seep out of her. To call it a person would be wrong. It was more like an animal, with fangs and with eyes like bottomless pits. To Sabrina, it looked like some horribly mutated worm seeking revenge on a fisherman. It whipped around in midair, desperate to reach Red Riding Hood, but the wind kept it at bay. It shrieked angrily.
“Now, Sabrina!” Granny cried.
Sabrina opened the glass jar and reached out to the creature. It thrashed about as Daphne forced it into the jar. Once it was inside, Sabrina quickly tightened the lid and the wind vanished. She watched her sister look at the little kazoo and slip it back into her pocket. Then she turned to Red Riding Hood. The strange girl had collapsed to the ground and lay still.
“She’s hurt,” Robin Hood said, as he rushed to her side, but his concerns proved to be unwarranted. Red opened her eyes slowly and looked up into the face of Granny Relda.
“Grandmother?” she asked.
Sabrina’s heart sank. She had been wrong. She believed they could really heal the girl, and that she in turn could save Mr. Canis, but Red was just as crazy as before. The weapon had not done what she had hoped it would.
The door to the room flew open and slammed against the wall. Sabrina looked up and saw Bluebeard and Nottingham barging into the room, along with half a dozen card soldiers armed with swords.
“Sorry, Grimms!” Nottingham said. “We have to take our witness to the trial.”
One of the card soldiers dragged Red to her feet and pulled her from the room.
“I do hope you had enough time to question her,” Bluebeard said. “Though I suspect you didn’t get too many straight answers out of her.”
Nottingham and Bluebeard roared with laughter as they left the room.
“See you in court,” Bluebeard cried back over his shoulder. “The trial starts in fifteen minutes.”